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Thursday, January 18, 2007

Catching Up With...Former Cleveland State Coach Kevin Mackey

The January issue of Basketball Times includes my profile of Kevin Mackey, who achieved national acclaim as Cleveland State's coach when his 14th-seeded Vikings upset Bob Knight's third-seeded Indiana Hoosiers in the 1986 NCAA Tournament. Mackey is currently a scout with the Indiana Pacers. This article is the first installment of a new series in the magazine that is titled "Catching Up With..." Some of you may remember the "Beers With..." profiles in Sport Magazine in the 1980s; "Catching Up With..." is kind of like that, only without the beer, and focusing primarily on individuals who had a great basketball accomplishment but are not necessarily currently in the public eye on a day to day basis now. The article is not available online but here is a link to Basketball Times' website if you would like to purchase the magazine: http://www.basketballtimes.com/

Here is the opening paragraph from the Mackey article:

Indiana Pacers scout Kevin Mackey has always looked for a certain kind of player: “the kid who was passed over, who is talented and maybe has a little bit of a chip on his shoulder—and terrific heart and terrific desire.” Mackey has recruited, coached and/or scouted such players for several decades now, first as a championship winning coach at Don Bosco high school in Boston, then as an assistant coach at Boston College in the early days of the Big East Conference and, most famously, as head coach at Cleveland State University.

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